X-Prize, Launch Monday Morning

[barnstorm2]

Mojave, CA: A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth's atmosphere.

[Screw]

Screw-In

How much is the X-prize worth? I bet it's not near the R&D that went in to it.

Screw-Out

[gyroman]

I believe the X-Prize is worth 10 Million. But the Texas lottery is up to 120 Million..... I got a dollar.... gotta run by the store... If I win its gyros for everyone....

[barnstorm2]

I'm holding you to that Toby! :)

[barnstorm2]

John,

Your right. Many of the contestants have already spent more than the prize amount.

[Hognose]

The money is not in the prize, it is in being first. Lindbergh I believe earned the Orteig prize of $25,000 -- serious money in the Roaring Twenties, but considering the number of contenders that died trying, and the effect the flight had on Lindbergh's life (and everyone else's), it is clear that it wasn't about the money.

One clarification. The launch Monday, if all goes well, will be the first private manned launch to reach exoatmospheric space. It will *not* be an X-Prize launch. That requires a total of three souls on board, and a repeat launch within X amount of time. This team is prepared to do that -- they have been flying SpaceShip One (the space vehicle part of their two-part flying machine) ballasted with the weights of three.

One or two other contenders are within hailing distance of the Prize but this team is out in front -- top-notch people, and lavish funding, are two of the reasons why (and probably in that order).

Friend of mine will be there at Mojave to watch. Wish I could.

cheers

-=K=-

[le-wardy]

Have read a little bit about Burt Rutan over the years, and without doubt the man is pure genius. Shame he couldn't sway over to the gyro world for a little design time.

[PW_Plack]

Perhaps he's too smart!

Monday's NY Times said that so far, Burt's sponsor, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, has invested $20-million in pursuit of the $10-million prize. Allen acknowledges he's spent much more than will be won if they're successful, and is comfortable with that. I don't remember Allen's exact quote, but it was something like, "there's nothing cooler than rocketry."

If I recall, Burt's rocket burns isopropyl alcohol mixed with a very fine dust made of ground-up rubber. Hmm...pre-rotator tip jets of the future?

[le-wardy]

Hmmm....So Paul Allen claims to of spent $20 mill. of his money to help Burt with his design. Isn't that about a months wages for Paul nowadays ??

[barnstorm2]

Month? Hell, he ticks that off in less than a day.

$20M for Paul is like me buying a magazine subscription.

[Kevin_Richey]

Did anyone else see the requirements for the public to watch this event?

I don't recall the car parking fee, but do remember the motorhome one:

$40 for a bare spot, WITH NO HOOKUPS!!! Unbelievable...

I 'spose they are trying to recoup some of their R & D $'s.

This is the same Paul Allen that is defaulting on his $130 million loan involving the Rose Quarter complex in Portland that is home to his NBA Trailblazer basketball team. He claims that the interest rate (around 9%) is too high to continue. He was offered quite a bit less than that rate at the loan inception by the loan company (made up of the retirement investments of the working class) if he would guarantee the loan with some of his assets. He refused.

Yet, Paul Allen has purchased a personal yacht of more than the amount he is defaulting on.

He is offering to buy the Rose Quarter assets at half of the default, since no one else appears able to. Unbelievable...

[barnstorm2]

Damn, and I thought Bill was a b@$_@^) !

[le-wardy]

Wonder if Paul and Bill use long crowbar to prise open their wallets ?? Could be like opening a giant clam's shell to grab the pearl ?

[Kevin_Richey]

What caught my interest in this "saga" of Rich-Man-Screws-The-Public was how one of the local golf cart businesses got taken by the bankruptcy.

They had done business for several years with the corporation and had just sent over one or two more carts. They received a check, and didn't think twice about getting it cashed for a week or so ('cause, hey, the corp. is owned by one of the world's richest men, right?).

The check came back because the corp. had filed for bankruptcy. They went over to the arena to try to get their cart(s) back and found them locked up. They didn't know about how all assets are frozen in bankruptcy.
They were told by the corp. that they should have cashed the check as soon as they received it...

[hiphop]

I'll be there at the launch. It should be pretty amazing. The current crowd estimates are between 10,000 and 100,000. By the way, the facilities fees (parking, camping, etc.) are being recouped by the airport, not Scaled.

Anyone else going (C'mon you LA people)?

--Gabriel

[barnstorm2]

Someone should fly a gyro in the day or two before and park it in tie-down. Maybe we can get some free international prime time press coverage! :)

[Madewooden]

According to the Scaled.com website, PPRs start today and the Mojave Airport converts to Spaceport operations on Monday.

I've been following this since the unveiling of the program last April.

Tim

[barnstorm2]

She is on the way.

Interestingly, the MSNBC.com live feed DID NOT WORK for me or any of my friends. We had to watch the lift off on CNN.com. I wonder how widespread the problem is. I still have the MSNBC feed open and NO VIDEO!

The ships seperate in about an hour.

[scottessex]

[b]cool! !!!***

[barnstorm2]

Success!

Congrats to the SpaceShip One team!

[PW_Plack]

Tim,

One reason computers are still a very poor way to watch video is demonstrated by days like this. You and a jillion other people were all trying to watch the same stream at the same time. I have Comcast cable internet service here in the Portland, OR area, and a big shortfall in their business model has been the inability to sell streaming video services to computer users, because it's so unsatisfactory to watch.

But, things are getting better. Four years ago, the IRS website couldn't handle all the requests for PDF forms on April 14th. This year, there was no appreciable slowing.

[barnstorm2]

Some GREAT photos of the event are here:

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/SpaceShipOne2004/index.html